CERN Council in Geneva has been elected Professor Eliezer Rabinovici of the Hebrew University its 24th president.
CERN, the world’s largest particle accelerator research center, is an organization of 23 countries, including Israel, the only non-European country. Israel joined as a full member in December 2013, after many years of being an observer.
Prof. Rabinovici’s position will start on 1 January 2022. He succeed Dr. Ursula Bassler, who concludes her three-year term at the end of December 2021.
“Professor Rabinovici is a brilliant theorist in the most advanced fields of research. During my presidency, I very often had the occasion to exchange with Professor Rabinovici, whose advice and contributions have always been very helpful to steer the ongoing discussions. I am confident that the Council is welcoming an excellent President, whose concern for science is of the utmost importance,” said Dr Bassler.
Meet the new President of the @CERN Council Eliezer Rabinovici! Mazal Tov! 👏 🇮🇱 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/sHAxhduTFB
— Israel in UN/Geneva🇮🇱 | #HRC48 (@IsraelinGeneva) September 24, 2021
Professor Rabinovici is currently a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Racah Institute of Physics and the Louis Michel visiting chair at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES).
His primary research interest is theoretical high-energy physics, namely quantum field theory and string theory.
Professor Rabinovici made significant contributions to our knowledge of the phase structure of gauge theories, the fundamental building blocks of the Standard Model, as well as to the discovery of gravity’s phases.
In 1974, he earned a Ph.D. in high-energy physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He worked as a research associate at Fermilab and at the Lawrence Berkeley Radiation Laboratory in the years that followed, before returning to Israel and the Hebrew University in 1977 as a senior lecturer, where he served as Director from 2005 to 2012.
Prof. Rabinovici has served on numerous councils and committees during his career, including as a member of the HEP-EPS Board of Directors (from 1996 to 2011), Chair of the Israeli Committee for SESAME (from 1997), and Chair of the Israeli High-Energy Committee (from 2004 to 2020). He was appointed to the CERN Council in 2004 as one of Israel’s delegates, serving as Vice President from 2016 to 2018.
“CERN is a special place where science and collaboration meet to answer some of the most fundamental questions about the world we live in. Throughout my 16 years as a member of the CERN Council, I have time after time been captivated by the commitment, collaboration and knowledge of people who work together towards the same mission. I am honoured that the Council chose me as their next President, and thankful that I get the opportunity to serve CERN’s scientific community, Member States and Associate Member States,” said Professor Rabinovici.
